Site Zero
by CopythatN7
Summary: In a distant, post ME3 future, an Asari archaeologist has made her greatest discovery yet. But is that such a good thing?


**SITE ZERO**

The two Asari made their way through the thick green mesh of the Zerattan jungle, one with an expression of eager anticipation, the second with discomfort and fatigue. It could be argued this was partially down to the second's more formal and figure hugging attire: a white tunic and black trousers. More sensibly, the other wore a more breathable short lime green skirt and loose cream shirt. An oak brown satchel was slung over her left shoulder, and it flapped to and fro against her as she cut further into the undergrowth with increasing speed.

Her companion was wiping sweat from her brow, its colour a reflection of the azure sky above. The sun shone especially bright today and she almost prayed for a repetition of the tropical storm the previous day.

Her companion seemed to sense her thought. "You think this is bad, Vess, yesterday these paths were rivers of mud. I only just made it out alive!" She laughed.

Vess shook her head. "Maybe. But if you hadn't, Heletia, I definitely wouldn't be out here. This is pure hell."

"Oh, come on, you wouldn't wish a bad thing on me, and anyway, what we've found at the site, trust me, you would have come eventually."

Vess brushed off an orange caterpillar with a frown. "It's a few graves, what's there to make of that?"

"Yes but they aren't us, are they? Don't you find that intriguing?"

"Not enough for me not to be wondering why a High Council member has let her fool school friend drag her out into the wilderness without giving good reason."

Heletia stopped at a clearing, where a rivulet crossed the sandy path they had been following. The white pebbles beneath the clear water glittered brilliantly. For a moment Vess admired it, and also the range of greens and barks that suddenly encircled them. The grass was short, pale and tufted here, the land now a little lighter underfoot, and more firm. It was altogether more benevolent here, she decided.

"We found the first remains here, Vess. A couple of crew members, it's hard to say what their precise roles would have been, they had nothing to suggest they were especially important."

"Other than to those who they were important to, Heletia." The more conservative and political of the pair gave a soft reproach to her friend. Sometimes Heletia's obsession with her job got the better of her and she forgot the more sensitive issues around such cases of history.

Heletia nodded, embarrassed. "I'm sorry, yes, I'm afraid I'm guilty of that more often than I should be. I mean, I shouldn't be at all..." She looked askance for a moment. "We should move on to the main site. It's just through the next thicket."

And so it was. Site Zero, a huge cut into a second, much larger clearing in the heart of the jungle. It was clearly of unnatural design, a very square hole whose sides were still quite flat. The trees and other foliage had not intruded much since they had first been cut back.

Vess was observing this with interest as they made their way further in, towards the large excavation going on in the heart of the square.

Heletia noticed and gestured to the borders. "The earth's been lined with chemicals to prevent encroachment from the jungle. We have some pretty pure samples in the temp-labs. There was a settlement here, around the ship."

Only now did Vess see what was being revealed by her friend, what was emerging from the dirt, being illuminated by the archaeologist's various lasers, scalpels and drills. It was an immense, yet sleek and elegant star-ship. The top of the body had been opened to the eye from nose to tail fin, and it was clear two large wing plates were lodged deep into the earth on either side of the body. Only the haunches could be seen right now, and as they reached the edge of the pit, Heletia told Vess it would be some time before they too could be cleaned up.

"Will you be able to bring it up completely? How old is it? It's quite beautiful in its way. And, if I'm not mistaken, it has some very familiar aspects to it, does it not?" She smiled and looked at Heletia for confirmation.

"We'll make an archaeologist of you yet, Vess! You're right, there's Asari in this thing's DNA."

"The tiling?"

"Yes indeed. It's armour plating, actually. The ship itself is of a design we've never seen before, but looks like they put their ship security in our hands, to a degree. Sirta Foundation may be the manufacturer's name, we've come across it several times in the ship's data-banks. I mean, there's a lot of wear and tear and we have a lot to learn yet—it could take years to assess this fully—but we're finding things all the time. Unbelievable things." A momentary stillness stayed her happiness as she said this.

"What's wrong?" Vess sensed a note of anxiety in her friend completely at odds with her mood throughout the last week.

"Later," Heletia said, brightening again. "Now, as to your second question: we think it's at least 50,000 years old." She let that hang, seeing how Vess wondered at how well the relic had endured beneath the soil for so long.

"How'd you find it, anyway?"

"Chance. Making my way to a different site some miles away, to one of our own. I came across a piece of wreckage. Then a second and a third. I realised there was something here and got my team in."

"With my money," Vess murmured.

"With Council funding, yes. Very grateful I am too."

"You're welcome."

Heletia looked on the markings running across the top of the white body. "That's it's name, see?"

Vess peered through the grime that had stained this once proud vessel. "Normandy?"

"Normandy SR-something. Last bit's scorched off by heat. Most likely by an emergency drop into our atmosphere followed by a heavy landing. Pilot must've been a genius not to wreck it on impact. I can't wait to get deeper into the interior, to engineering. Right now only the top deck and what may be the Commander's quarters are available for physical inspection. And they aren't stable. We're working on that."

"Extra-Terrestrial, huh? Fascinating."

"So were some of the more interesting bodies we found. Their clothing, or armour, or breathing apparatus, half a dozen of them had a variety of items suggesting several different species served on this thing. And one was Asari."

Vess stared at her friend, incredulous. "Do you have a name?"

Heletia chuckled. "Well that's the next thing I have to tell you about, something so very _us_."

"How do you mean?"

"She was one Liara T'Soni, a keen archaeologist like myself, amongst many other things. And she made this." Heletia unslung her satchel and fished out of it a small silver data-stick. "This tech isn't that much more advanced than our own, actually. But what it is, is incredible. A chronicle of her time. It's the most important find by our people ever, here or out on the colonies. It's a capsule, and it tells us the history of this ship, of its Commanding officer, of the ah, situation they were in when the crash happened, and much more. Again, it will take a long time to complete reading it. But..." she frowned again.

Vess eyed a schematic of the Normandy, running across a monitor on a bench close by. "Who was this Commander?"

"Alisha Shepard, a SPECTRE."

"What's that?"

"Special forces agent, essentially. But she was, T'Soni suggests, much more than that. T'Soni actually got her to provide a quote for this, in fact. She seemed... confident. The whole capsule comes in a rather beautiful holographic medium. But these are words. It has to be experienced to be truly understood, Vess. You'll see soon enough."

"Right. So, any idea why they crashed here? I presume something went wrong?"

A shadow fell over Heletia's face and she looked directly at Vess, as if she had seen the reflection of something disturbing. "They were at war. The events that led to it and those during its cataclysm, are all here, but to go into detail would take too long to describe right now. Suffice to say this crew, this ship, and this Shepard, of the race named humanity, they were all at the heart of the battle. A conflict fought against immense machines known as Reapers. I'm not sure of the outcome, the timeline does not run the full course of the conflict, but it was terrible, and it had happened many times before. And would, possibly, happen again."

Vess saw her friend's anxiety manifesting and began to feel the same unease as she digested the information. "But a war does not truly repeat itself."

Heletia rolled her eyes and shrugged. "Really? We haven't had any, Vess." Then: "Maybe we should start."

Vess frowned. "What does that mean?"

"Well, if this data history is to be believed, we're all due one. A serious one. Maybe you should see the holo-capsule now after all. Come on, I've built a temporary facility for analysis, we can do it there."

Vess put a finger up to halt her friend a second. Her collar-com had crackled to life, the Council had requested her immediate return for a meeting of some importance.

Vess asked a couple of curt questions, trying to glean a little more reason for leaving the site. The frown she had had deepened and her eyes returned to her friend, who looked back at her quizzically. She let the com buzz out.

"Something wrong, Vess?" Heletia asked.

"I don't know." She looked thoughtfully up at the sky. "But our colonies on Dravin and Jenneh in the Prescient Nebula just went dark."

They both looked back down to the half hidden ship from ancient times past. Suddenly, despite the choking humidity, they both felt a chill on their skin.


End file.
